Final Destination is a 2000 supernatural horror thriller film directed by James Wong (The One), starring Devon Sawa (Idle Hands), Ali Larter (Resident Evil: Extinction, Kerr Smith (The Forsaken), Tony Todd (Candyman), and Seann William Scott (American Pie). The story follows a teenager named Alex (Sawa) who cheats death after having a premonition of a plane explosion, but Death later takes the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane.

Final Destination follows a group of survivors of an incident involving a plane exploding, quickly find themselves dying off one-by-one under mysterious circumstances afterward. Now, Final Destination is a new, original take on the grim reaper mythology and slasher genre. So a majority of the story’s enjoyment comes from the rising tension and witnessing the events leading up to the deaths. But like most slashers there’s little actual depth to the story instead opting to go the teen movie route cause those always work so well.

There’s drama here and there but it doesn’t really have much weight to it so most of the time when the characters are interacting you don’t really care. However, the story has a lot of suspense. It’s an interesting story and surely the deaths are entertaining but there’s little substance to it. There’s a serious lack of character development with no interesting subplots. Even Alex’s premonition isn’t explained. There’s this “romance” between the two main leads that has no weight to it and even feels forced. It’s a predictable movie and without the deaths you won’t remember much about it. (2 out of 5)

Like any good slasher film our main cast consist of a bunch of teenagers and boy are they poorly written. For the exception of Clear most of the other characters freaking suck. They have no death…depth, they’re just the typical tropes that we’ve come to expect. Clear’s (Ali Larter) the only character that had any kind of interesting quirks or development. She’s the only character that I was rooting for. Maybe this was during the rebirth of slasher movies in the mid 90s to early 2000s but the emphasis on characters only to be canon fodder makes for a bad movie. We don’t learn anything about these characters and don’t care for the most part. Alex (Devon Sawa) is an uninteresting main protagonist, Tod (Chad E. Donella) was forgettable, Billy (Seann William Scott) was a nervous wreck, Carter (Kerr Smith) was an asshole, Terry (Amanda Detmer) was useless, and Valerie (Kristen Cloke) was just there. Alex and Clear have this “relationship” and boy is it cheesy. You don’t like them, you don’t get to know really anything about their lives. There’s literally no substance whatsoever. Just piss poor characters all around. (2 out of 5)

The performances aren’t really anything to run home about and maybe it’s because of the direction. It’s a got a decent cast with some recognizable faces such as Devon Sawa, Ali Larter and Seann William Scott but honestly they aren’t given much to work with. The other cast includes Kerr Smith, Kristen Cloke, and Amanda Detmer. Of course, we get a cameo from horror legend himself Tony Todd, who plays himself in the movie. The supporting cast is alright. (2 out of 5)

Visually, this is a good movie. The effects are pretty good, both in terms of practical and special with a good blend of the two. The deaths are violent and bloody but the execution is done with well. The buildup of the deaths are done well and have a grounded sense to them that make them feel practical, making them that more effective. I commend the movie for having death as this ominous figure rather than give it a physical form. In this way, it feels like death is everywhere rather than a single figure. We do get glimpses of a shadowy, smokey figure but it’s not lasting so it doesn’t take away from its malevolence. (3 out of 5)

I didn’t really mind the soundtrack although I don’t remember it worth a lick of beans. However, it was used effectively enough to build the suspense. I don’t have much experience with Shirley Walker’s career although I’ve appreciated her contributions to films like Escape from L.A., True Lies, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and television shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. I didn’t even really mind the sound design. The moments where death’s presence is doing its thing and you hear that deep growl. I think it actually works. (3 out of 5)

Of all the things that I’ve said about this movie so far has been the appetizer. Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this dish. The movie was directed by James Wong who’s had his hand in more television than film. He has gone to direct two of the later entries in the series, Final Destination 3 and Final Destination 5. He does a good job with the film and under his direction manages to create a film that’s creative with the kills and sustains a strong sense of suspense.

The creativity of the kills and the chain of events leading up showing the complexity of the writing (not of the characters). The writing features some pretty poorly written characters with little to no characterization. Slasher films have always had a problem with balancing good characters with good kills. So you won’t walk away remembering any of the characters who already have to deal with poorly written choices and decent dialogue but not memorable. And this also fuels the lack any compelling drama between the characters, and despite the decent pacing the story lacks any kind of substance. There are plotholes which the movie does a decent job of addressing (thanks to the cameo of Tony Todd) although it doesn’t really address the origins of Alex’s premonition. I think the movie has good direction and complex writing but leaves much to be desired when it comes to the characters and the dialogue. (3 out of 5)

In the end, Final Destination takes the slasher genre and puts a supernatural spin to it. I didn’t like most of the characters and felt that most lacked depth and a story that’s too direct lacking any subplots or character development. Still, it’s an interesting story, great kills, decent music, and a good use of the special effects. Final Destination gets 2 out of 5.